UNIT 3 课时跟踪检测（二） 语言运用综合练（word练习）-【新课程学案】新教材2023-2024学年高中英语选择性必修2 （外研版）

UNIT 3 课时跟踪检测（二） 语言运用综合练 Ⅰ.阅读理解 Birds' bodies are becoming smaller in size in response to climate change, even in places like the Amazon rainforest that are relatively untouched by human hands, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances. Researchers found that nearly all of the birds' bodies have become lighter since the 1980s, losing on average about 2% of their body weight every decade. For an average bird species that weighed about 30 grams in the 1980s, the population now averages about 27.6 grams. The study also revealed that wingspan was getting bigger in the Amazon bird species studied. These birds don't vary that much in size. When everyone in the population is a couple of grams smaller, it's significant. This is undoubtedly happening all over and probably not just with birds. A lower body weight and increasing wing length means that birds use energy more efficiently, the researchers noted. For example, compared with a fighter jet with short wings that needs lots of fuel to fly, a glider plane with a thin body and long wings flies up into the air with much less energy. The study concluded that a warmer climate was the driving force of these changes. The climate in Brazilian Amazonia, where the birds lived, had gotten hotter and wetter over the study period. Since 1966, rainfall increased by 13% in the wet season and fell by 15% in the dry, with temperatures increasing by 1 degree Celsius in the wet season and 1.65 degrees Celsius in the dry season. The change in climate might have made food or other resources insufficient. Together, body proportions moved in the direction of more efficient flight and lower metabolic heat production and are consistent with a plastic or genetic adaptation to resource or thermal stress under climate change. Animals are dealing with climate change in different ways. 语篇解读：本文是一篇说明文。文章主要说明了研究发现鸟类为了应对气候变化，身体正在变得越来越小，并具体说明了鸟类体重的变化情况以及这一变化给鸟类带来的影响等。 1．What is the direct cause of birds' changes? A．A warmer cl